Jan 05, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Western Provincial Council has established a special unit to probe reports of charging money to admit students to Grade 1.

For this, the Provincial Council has opened two hotlines numbered 0112-698410 and 075-9222300 to which the people can report incidents of charging money.

Chief Minister Prasanna Ranathunga pointed out that charging money for purposes sans facilities and services charges is illegal in Sri Lanka’s state school system, where free education is guaranteed to all students.

However, studies find that money is charged for various funds and a lot of corruption takes place especially in popular schools.

In many instances, the principals of cash-strapped schools tend to use the charges levied from the students for maintenance and school development.

Parents who want heir children admitted to popular schools pay the charges and do not report to any authority, sources say.